These two cases, which form a historic cornerstone of the firm, have had a decisive impact in terms of their consequences, right up to the most recent case. Having been sworn in as a barrister in 1965 and elected second secretary of the trainee barristers’ conference in 1968, Daniel Soulez Larivière was appointed by the President of the Bar in 1969 to defend Eugène Rousseau, a 63-year-old SDECE agent accused of “colluding with agents of a foreign power”.
Under the standard cover of serving as a military attaché in Belgrade, this widower had obtained the service’s imprudent consent to bring his youngest daughter, aged 16, with him; she had been assigned secretarial duties at the French Embassy. The Yugoslav secret service (UDBA) had her seduced by an agent and forced her to have an abortion whilst filming the procedure, then blackmailed her into handing over the embassy’s codes and everything she could get her hands on by virtue of her position. In the late 1960s, a Yugoslav secret service defector who had fled to the United States accused Rousseau himself of treason during his debriefings by the CIA. The SDECE, having been alerted, believed that, as a result of this blackmail, he had become an agent of the East. After ten days of unofficial detention at the SDECE and 11 days in police custody at the DST, Rousseau confessed to whatever his accusers wanted, even though these ‘confessions’ were completely implausible.
Observers specialising in military affairs later realised that he had fallen victim to an internal power struggle within the SDECE, whose director of research was suspected of being the source of leaks to communist countries. Following a preliminary inquiry by the State Security Court – which at the time heard espionage cases – the case was referred to the Court presided over by President Romerio, flanked by two senior officers.
On 20 April 1970, Eugène Rousseau was sentenced in camera (an unprecedented move) to 15 years’ imprisonment. This was the first case handled by the firm’s founder in which he felt it was his duty to rectify this miscarriage of justice; otherwise, he felt he would have to leave the Bar. He asked Gilles Perrault, a specialist in the Second World War and espionage known for his book *L’Orchestre Rouge* (Fayard, 1962), to write an article, which in fact became a book. The book was written in six months: *L’Erreur* (Fayard, 1971). Thanks to Gilles Perrault, a support committee, comprising prominent members of the Resistance and long-standing Gaullists (2), wrote to Georges Pompidou in June to vigorously petition for a pardon. In July 1971, the Minister for Justice, René Pleven, informed Daniel Soulez Larivière that the President of the Republic had heeded the request and that his client would be released on 23 December of that year. The prison governor himself escorted him to his solicitor, who was waiting for him in Melun’s market square.
Whilst accompanying Eugène Rousseau home, Gilles Perrault asked Daniel Soulez Larivière to assist him with the Trepper case; this is why these two cases are inextricably linked in the firm’s early history. Léopold Trepper, former head of the ‘Red Orchestra’ (a Soviet spy network covering the whole of Western Europe during the Second World War), who had escaped from the Gestapo in 1943, was subsequently sentenced in Moscow to 10 years’ imprisonment, like most of those who had served abroad under Stalin.
Released upon Stalin’s death and having returned to Warsaw, he became president of the Jewish community in Poland. But in 1969, following a widespread anti-Semitic campaign in the country, Trepper’s entire family was forced to emigrate. He, however, was detained – no doubt out of fear on the part of the Poles and the Russian security services that he might recount certain episodes from the war under Stalin. He received two visits from Daniel Soulez Larivière under extraordinary circumstances, and was supported by a campaign organised with Gilles Perrault in France, Switzerland and England, and even in Brazil by Lula. Le Monde then published an opinion piece by Jean Rochet, the director of the DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire), which revived old accusations of treason against Trepper, first spread by the Gestapo and then by certain strongly anti-communist agencies of that Cold War era. At Léopold Trepper’s request, a defamation suit was brought against the then director of the DST.
The trial took place before the 17th Criminal Court in 1972. The director of the DST was removed from his post between two hearings and transferred to serve as prefect in Nancy. On 30 November 1972, he was found guilty of acting in bad faith in bringing his accusations, the court ruling that it was not possible to bring charges against Trepper without presenting the testimonies of all those in the Resistance and the Comintern who knew the true story of his exploits: he had completely duped the German intelligence services by managing to inform Moscow both that he had been captured and of the Germans’ aim in trying to manipulate him after they had, under threat, turned the arrested members of the network against him.
The German intelligence services hoped to demobilise the Russians by making them believe in a plan for a separate peace between the Allies and Germany. After the fall of the Wall, the writer Patrick Rotman, who ghostwrote Trepper’s memoirs, found confirmation in the Comintern archives that Trepper had indeed managed the incredible feat of passing a message to the Russian intelligence services via Jacques Duclos, head of the clandestine French Communist Party (PCF). As the Rousseau affair had fortunately been resolved, Daniel Soulez Larivière did not leave the profession.
As events unfolded, he found himself, at the age of 30, at the heart of affairs of state that turned in the defence’s favour – even though, having been convicted by the 17th Chamber, the director of the DST was subsequently acquitted when the judgement was quashed on procedural grounds: the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that the Public Prosecutor’s Office should have lodged an application with the Court of Cassation to have a new court designated, as he had been appointed prefect between two hearings. The law firm Soulez Larivière Avocats, established in 1969, thus began to build its reputation on two legal victories with political implications.
This familiarity with secret service affairs may have been one of the reasons why enthusiasts smiled when he was appointed by the government to the so-called Rainbow Warrior case twelve years later. ‘A wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ some said. This was also, by extension, one of the reasons why the firm became involved in the so-called ‘Red Jumper’ case: with his book, which had become a bestseller, Gilles Perrault had launched a media campaign in defence of Christian Ranucci, who was sentenced to death and executed in 1976. Daniel Soulez Larivière chaired the support committee for the review of his trial, which was argued by Jean-Denis Bredin.